Pressure grows in US to legalise assisted death

Denver: On a brisk day at a restaurant outside Chicago, Deb Robertson sat with her teenage grandson to talk about her death.

She’ll probably miss his high school graduation. Death doesn’t frighten her much. She didn’t cry when she learned two months ago that the cancerous tumors in her liver were spreading, portending a tormented death. But later, she received a call. A bill moving through the Illinois Legislature to allow certain terminally ill patients to end their lives with a doctor’s help had made progress. Then she cried.

“Medical aid in dying is not me choosing to die,” she says she told her 17-year-old grandson. “I am going to die. But it is my way of having a little bit more control over what it looks like in the end.” That same conversation is happening beside hospital beds and around dinner tables across the country, as Americans who are nearing life’s end negotiate the terms with themselves, their families and, now, state lawmakers.

At least 12 states currently have bills that would legalize physician-assisted death. Eight states and Washington, D.C., already allow it, but only for their own residents. Vermont and Oregon permit any qualifying American to travel to their state for the practice. Patients must be at least 18 years old, within six months of death and be assessed to ensure they are capable of making an informed decision. Two states have gone in the opposite direction. Kansas has a bill to further criminalise those who help someone with their physician-assisted death. West Virginia is asking voters to enshrine its current ban into the state constitution. It was late at night when Rod Azama awoke to his wife crawling on the floor, screaming. Pain from her cancer had punched through the heavy morphine dose. “Let me die,” screamed his wife, Susan. As Rod rushed to hold her, the cries faded to repeated mumbles.

“It’s normalising suicide, and it’s incentivising individuals to end their lives,” said Danielle Pimentel of Americans United for Life. Pimentel raised concerns that pain isn’t the top reason people choose an early departure, adding that policy should focus on bettering end-of-life care.

Two national organisations lobbying for the bills argue it’s about autonomy and compassion, some power over one’s preordained exit. “It comes down to the right of an individual to control their own end of life decisions free from government intervention or religious interference,” said Goeff Sugerman, national campaign strategist Death with Dignity. Even though it’s illegal in most states, a 2018 Gallup poll showed more than two-thirds two-thirds of Americans support the practice.

Only a small fraction of Americans across the country, about 8,700, have used physician-assisted death since Oregon became the first state to legalise it in 1997, according to the advocacy group Compassion & Choices.

The patient must verbally request it twice with a waiting period that varies by state, and submit a written request with witnesses. At three meetings, a physician assesses the patient to ensure they are able to make an informed decision. The patient can be referred to a psychologist for an assessment if there are concerns. Patients must take the medication themselves. They lose consciousness within a few minutes, and pass away usually within a few hours.